"I've more or less come to terms with mine. It's nothing that really needs to be medicated or anything. The most noticeable expression of my OCD is that I tend to keep myself very clean. There are plenty of other, little…"

"Heh, sounds like you're a little obsessive-compulsive, too. Your thing with writing anything out of order seems a bit comparable to some of my issues.
At least I've only got the two novels started. The fantasy novel will be…"

"I know what you mean. I wanted to be a fantasy writer, at one point. I've got one fantasy novel that's about half written, but I'm not sure I can finish the thing. I know where it starts, and I know where I'm going with it ...…"

"Welcome. What sort of writing do you do?
And yeah, sucks about Michael Crichton. 56 is way too young for a writer to die. Always makes me wonder how much more brilliant stuff he might have had in him, otherwise."

"Hi Brooke, and welcome to this wonderful world of rationality, truth and peace.
True common sense helped by science leads to humanist and atheist wisdom as freethinkers know well.
We invite you to make good friends by joining the…"

I've more or less come to terms with mine. It's nothing that really needs to be medicated or anything. The most noticeable expression of my OCD is that I tend to keep myself very clean. There are plenty of other, little quirks, but that's the one that jumps out at most people, after they see me wash my hands.

The only quantifiable negative impact it has on my life is that I take very long showers and go through a bar of soap in about two showers. My water bill is also a bit higher than most, but I can deal with that.

Yeah, I can see the initial reaction to critique. I guess that like everything else, you just grow accustomed to it over time. At this point, my usual reaction is that there isn't enough red ink on the page. And I don't worry about positive comments that they've written here and there. Tell me what's wrooooong with it. I can't fix it, if I don't know what's broken.

For what it's worth, for every negative comment I make, when I'm reviewing someone else's material, I always spend at least as much ink on possible corrections. :-)

And don't knock the teen market. There are a few writers who have done tolerably well within the sub-genre. The last I heard, J.K. Rowling is worth about a billion or so, in US dollars.

And what in the world contributes to your low self-esteem? I'm confused. Most teenage girls have issues like that about their appearance, but that obviously can't be the case for you.

Wow, lucky draw, with your family members. None of my immediate family members are hardcore fundies or anything, but they're pretty much all a bit religious.

Gotta love the apatheists (apathetic theists), which is how I'd probably categorize your mother. They're probably responsible for the high percentage of atheists in the current teenage bracket. If people aren't brainwashed into religious thinking, as a child, the odds are pretty slim that they'll get into any kind of religion during their teens or early adulthood. Particularly with the idea of the importance of science, which the mainstream media has finally latched onto and is spreading, religious thinking doesn't stand a chance, particularly after a good dose of secular college.

The fundamentalist religious types see the truth of this, and it scares them. They can see the end coming, I think.

Wish I had your rational family members to discuss things with.

Yeah, if the other people around school stick to questions, you're good. That's part of what being an out-of-the-closet atheist is all about. You're there as the example of what atheists are really like, rather than the stories told by their fundamentalist preachers. The more we get people to see atheists as reasonable people who have many positive traits that they might want to emulate, the more people we'll have who throw off their religion when they get out from under their parents' control and can make their own decisions about who they want to be.

Of course I also kind of enjoy when they start in with the threats. I'm sure it's a lot easier for me to get right back in their face than it is for you, though. I'm 6'1", and I lift weights and stuff. Plus, I'm also part Italian and can be very loud, when I want to be. You look like you're a bit shorter.

I just wish I could be half as cool as Jeff Dee, when he goes ballistic on them:

Heh, sounds like you're a little obsessive-compulsive, too. Your thing with writing anything out of order seems a bit comparable to some of my issues.

At least I've only got the two novels started. The fantasy novel will be part of a series, if I ever get anywhere with it, and then there's a stand-alone, Christian-mythology novel, which is the one I was talking about, which is composed of a series of disconnected scenes.

You could call the standup comedy a third piece that I'm working on. I've got a little over an hour or material written; I just need to work on memorization and cleaning up a few bits of some segments. I'm focusing on that right now. I'll probably pick the Christian-mythology novel back up first, when I'm ready to get back into writing prose.

The big issue with writing is that coming up with the ideas is fun. Sitting down and cranking out 300 pages of text can become very tiring. It helps to have someone to prod you along. The only way I ever got anything accomplished at all was to take my laptop out to Barnes&Noble or Borders (back when it still existed) to work away from all of my distractions at home.

Also, it helps if you can find a decent writing group, with people who will constructively rip apart your writing and tell you how to improve it. I've encountered so many idiots who will just say, "You don't have what it takes to be a writer. Give up," and then you'll have others who will gush all over the same passage: "Wow, this is awesome! It's interesting and just like real writing!" Neither response helps in the slightest. You need people who will comb through it and be specific ... tell you what will make it better.

Say, what is it like, being an atheist, for you? Are you out of the closet to your family? Are they particularly religious?

I came out of the closet when I was about 14, but I was in a pretty liberal area. Even the Catholic priests I talked to were pretty relaxed and liberal about their faith. I can't imagine when it must be like, living in relatively small-town Texas, having to deal with all of the Christ-bots around you.

I know what you mean. I wanted to be a fantasy writer, at one point. I've got one fantasy novel that's about half written, but I'm not sure I can finish the thing. I know where it starts, and I know where I'm going with it ... but there are three points at which I'm not sure how to connect one end of the plot to the other.

I've found that I write best if I do small, separate scenes which aren't directly connected, but string together into a progression of the theme. Think something like Month Python and the Holy Grail, if you're familiar with it. That style doesn't work very well with fantasy ... or at least the style of fantasy I was writing.

Of course, I've got all of my prose writing on hold right now, while I focus on the stand-up comedy, but I've got to figure out which direction I'll be heading in, once I'm ready to pick it back up.

Hi Brooke, and welcome to this wonderful world of rationality, truth and peace.

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